Louis edme achille prangey



PRANGEY'. APPARATUS PoR RBPINLNG SUGAR.

(No Model.)-

No. 502,015.i Patented July 25, 189s.

UNITED STATESV PATENT OFFICE.

LOUIS EDME ACHILLE PRANGEY, OF SANNOIS, FRANCE.

APPARATUS FOR REFINING SUGAR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 502,015, dated July 25, 1893. Application filed May 5 1893. Serial No. 473.099. (No model.)

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I. LoUIs EDME ACHILLE PRANGEY, a citizen of the Republic of France, residing at Sannois,in the said Republic, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Apparatus or Machinery for the Manufacture of Refined Sugar, of which the following is a specification.

This invention consists in an improvement in the apparatus or machinery for the continuous process of refining sugar in the form of slabs or sheets which is described in my United States Letters Patent Nos. 452,062 and 452,063, and my application for Letters Patent, Serial No. 443,975, iiled August 24, 1892. By the present improvement the said apparatus or machinery is adapted to the reiining and bleaching of sugar which has been previously treated in centrifugals, that is to say, sugar which is not agglomerated. However, generally speaking, the improvement may be employed for sugar either in the state known as masse cuite, cooled or not, or in a state of raw sugar in grain or moistened with a suitable liquid, saccharine or not, for the purposes of increasing its richness and of reducing its color or of obtaining either of these results.

In my machinery as it is described in my preceding patents hereinabove referred to, the sugar to be treated is spread in a more or less thick layer upon a perforated or reticulated metallic apron which is moved in such manner as to transport it successively to different points of the machine where it is subj ected to the several operations which together produce the desired result. The elements of the machinery are moreover arranged in such manner that the operation of the apparatus is methodical; but in order that the operation may have its full effect, a certain number of conditions must be fulfilled. I will enumerate these in indicating the manner in which I accomplish them and which constitute precisely the characteristic points of the new'means which I employ. Ihe layer of sugar should be of equal thickness throughout the Width of the apron and as homogeneous as possible. To obtain this result a machine embodying my invention is organized to deposit the sugar which, as I have above stated may be either the masse cuite or sugar in a more or less transverse partitions into a series of hoppers which situated one in advance of another, debouch at such levels that one delivers its contents to form a layer directly upon the apron, the next delivers its contents to form a second layer upon the upper surface of the first one and so on throughout the series.

In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 represents a vertical longitudinal section of part of the endless metallic apron and a corresponding section of the divided reservoir and of other devices which are embodied in my invention. Fig. 2 represents a transverse section in the line 00 0a of Fig. 1.

D is the metallic carrying apron which is like that described in my former patents. R is the reservoir arranged over said apron, and H I are the transverse partitions which divide the said reservoir int-o the several hoppers E, F, G, which debouch atA different levels and from which the sugar is separately delivered above the upper surface of the apron, the sugar from the first or rearmost hopper E which debouchesat the lowest level being delivered directly on the apron, that from the next hopperF which debouches at a higher level being delivered on the layer ,carried forward fromthe first hopper, and that from the third hopper G which debouches at a still higher level being delivered upon the second layer. Y

The partitions H and I are represented as of inverted V-shape, hollow and open at their bottoms and under them are arranged rollers A and B which are respectively in front of the hoppers E and F for the purpose ofproducing a slight pressure upon the layers of sugar deposited from the said hoppers. A pressure roller C is also arranged in front of the throat of the hopper G to produce pressure upon the layer delivered from the latter hopper. The several layers are thus success- ICO ively compressed to acertain degree and compressed together into a continuous sheet or slab which is of uniform thickness and homogeneous throughout.

The rollers A, B, C are by preference made in short sections l, 2, 3, 4t, 5, 6, as shown in Fig. 2, movable independent of each other, and two successive rollers are arranged in such manner that the middle of the disks of one of them corresponds with the space between the disks of the other.

To support the apron under the rollers A, B, C, and prevent it from bending under the action of the pressure exercised by thelatter on the sugar under treatment, rollers J are arranged under the apron.

The sheet of sugar of uniform thickness and homogeneous quality having been produced as hereinabove described, the sugar is refined asI have described in my patents hereinabove mentioned by spreading over the surface of the sheet sirup which is drawn through it by the aid of asuitable vacuum maintained below the metallic apron which serves to carry it. It is also in this manner that masse cuite or moistened sugar is deprived of excess of siriip which it may contain at the time when placed upon the apron in successive layers as hereinabove described.

In proportion as the sugar carried by the traveling apron Bgets farther from the cliarging hoppers E, F, G, it is deprived of theimpurities which its crystals contain and it becomes whiter and whiter. To aid this transformation the sirup which is used for the clarifying should be of lighter and lighter color in proportion to the distance from the lioppers at which it is employed. Arrived at the exit end of the apparatus the sugar will be absolutely pure and white if the number of purifications to which it has been subjected in its course is siiflicient and if the clarifying liquids employed in the later stages ofthe process should be sufiiciently colorless and pure.` On the contrary the sirup corresponding with the sugar entering into the apparatus will be impure and colored and may even present all the physical and chemical characters of spent molasses if the sugar operated upon is sufficiently impure.

In practice there will be a certain number clarifying liquids constituting a series which may be employed or not in the same machine according to the nature of the sugar `trated in the accompanying drawings, to be employed in connection with my invention, will be analogous to that described in my preceding patents hereinbefore referred to, that apparatus oi machinery beingfurnished with the accessory combination herein illus 'trated and described to insure the equality ol ythickness and homogeneit'ylof the layei of lsugar, as well as with the siriip and clarifying distributer and suction apparatus.

What I claim as my invention isl. The combination with the traveling apron, of a sugar reservoir in which are partitions at different levels dividing said reser voir into hoppers which debouch at different Y levels above the apron, substantially asand Kfor the purpose herein set forth.

2. The combination with the traveling apron, of severalhoppers debouching atdifi ferent levels above said apron and pressure rollers arranged in front of the several hoppers and above the apron, substantially as herein set forth.

3. The combination with the traveling 'apron and the reservoir arranged above it, of

a series of inverted V-shaped hollow trans verse partitions at different,- levels within the `reservoir and pressure rollers arranged under the said partitions and above the apron, substantially as herein set forth.

et. The combination with the traveling apron, of several hoppers debouching at different levels above said apron, pressure rollers above the said apron in front of the sev- `eral hoppers, and supporting rollers below said apron and under said pressure rollers,

lsubstantially as herein set forth.

In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing witl nesses. of reservoirs containing as many kinds of LOUIS EDME ACHILLE PRANGEY. Witnesses:

CHARLES Assi, Ronfr. M. Hoornn.

IOO 

